On the evening of 11 May 2026, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) served Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s former chief of staff, with a formal notice of suspicion in Kyiv. The charge relates to Operation Midas, a sprawling investigation into the alleged laundering of 460 million hryvnias (approximately $10.5 million) through a luxury housing development known as the Dynasty complex, located near the village of Kozyn in Kyiv Oblast. Six other individuals, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, were also served notices in the days that followed.

Yermak was once described by Ukrainian media as the second most powerful figure in the country, the unseen hand behind every major presidential decision since Zelenskyy took office in 2019. He resigned as chief of staff in November 2025 after NABU detectives raided his home, and Zelenskyy subsequently appointed Defence Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov to replace him. Yermak later declared he was heading to the front, though the Defence Ministry confirmed he had made no contact with military enlistment offices. The May 2026 notice of suspicion transforms him from a fallen aide into an official criminal suspect.

NABU head Semen Kryvonos stated at a press conference on 12 May that President Zelenskyy himself “has not been and is not currently a subject of the pretrial investigation.” The prosecution requested bail of 180 million hryvnias ($4.1 million) or, alternatively, that Yermak be remanded in custody. Yermak appeared at a Kyiv court hearing on 12 May and dismissed the allegations as “unfounded,” telling reporters: “I own only one apartment and one car.”

At the core of Operation Midas is the figure of Tymur Mindich, a wealthy businessman who co-owned the Kvartal 95 comedy troupe alongside Zelenskyy before the president entered politics. NABU investigators allege that Mindich orchestrated a $100 million kickback scheme at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company. Proceeds were then allegedly laundered through elite construction projects including the Dynasty complex. Mindich left for Israel after allegations first emerged and has denied all wrongdoing. The broader probe has also drawn in Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief, who has been questioned as a witness.

NABU was established following the 2014 Euromaidan revolution with substantial support from the United States and the European Union, explicitly designed to be insulated from political interference in Kyiv. That institutional arrangement has since become one of the most contested features of Ukrainian governance. In July 2025, Zelenskyy signed legislation that effectively stripped NABU and SAPO of their independence, triggering rare wartime street protests and swift condemnation from Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Lindsey Graham. Zelenskyy reversed course within days, restoring the agencies’ statutory autonomy.

The timing of the Yermak charges relative to the broader peace diplomacy has drawn intense comment. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have been active in Ukraine-Russia mediation throughout April and May 2026, with Umerov confirmed to have met both envoys in Washington in recent days. A U.S.-brokered three-day ceasefire around the Victory Day holiday on 9 May held imperfectly and expired without a broader framework. Ukrainian parliamentarian Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the foreign-affairs committee, offered a notably positive framing of the prosecution: “Partners see that Ukraine has an independent anti-corruption system that is performing its function.”

The Zelenskyy government attempted to push back on the most politically charged interpretation of events. Zelenskyy’s communications aide said on 11 May it was “too early to comment” on the Yermak suspicion notice. NABU director Kryvonos was emphatic that the president was not implicated. The agency’s position is that the investigation has been running since the Dynasty complex searches of November 2025, and that the formal suspicion notice was issued when evidence reached the necessary threshold, not for political reasons. A SAPO prosecutor later told the court that Yermak had periodically consulted a contact known as “Veronika Feng Shui Office” when making senior government appointments, a claim Yermak flatly denied.

The same night the NABU notice was served on Yermak, Tucker Carlson published a 90-minute interview with Yulia Mendel, who served as Zelenskyy’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021. The interview covered corruption in the Ukrainian government, the dynamics of the 2022 Istanbul peace negotiations, and Mendel’s characterization of her former employer. Verified by Kyiv Post, NV Ukraine, and multiple other outlets, the interview immediately inflamed Ukrainian political circles and prompted a formal response from the Presidential Office.

One of Mendel’s most explosive claims was that Zelenskyy had been personally prepared to cede the Donbas region during the Istanbul talks in spring 2022, and that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s intervention derailed that trajectory. The Presidential Office rejected the allegation outright, stating that Mendel had “no access to state decision-making and was not involved in the negotiation process.” Multiple analysts noted that Mendel had already left the presidential team by the time of the Istanbul talks, limiting her direct knowledge of the negotiations.

According to Mendel’s account, confirmed across multiple independent outlets, Zelenskyy made the propaganda remark during an internal meeting in 2019 or 2020, when a colleague pushed back on the idea that media management could substitute for policy delivery. The comment shocked those present, Mendel said. She also claimed that Zelenskyy is an obstacle to peace, labelled him “evil” and “emotionally uncontrollable,” and alleged that drug use within his circle was an “open secret,” a claim she did not substantiate with specifics. The Presidential Office described her statements as detached from reality and noted that Carlson is well-known for broadcasting narratives aligned with Russian state messaging.

Ukrainian media professionals and communications specialists condemned the interview in strong terms, with NV Ukraine characterizing Mendel’s remarks as echoing Russian propaganda narratives. Mendel had previously made controversial claims about Yermak, including allegations that he engaged in occult rituals, without providing evidence. She has also been added to the Myrotvorets database of “enemies of Ukraine” following the Carlson broadcast. Whatever credibility questions surround her claims, the political damage from the timing of the interview, landing on the same night as the Yermak arrest, was compounded by its reach through Carlson’s very large American audience.

The SouthFront report that triggered this article included two additional claims that Strategy Battles was unable to corroborate through independent Western sources. The first is that NABU agents cordoned the British Embassy building in Kyiv during the nighttime operation on 11 May, purportedly to prevent suspects from seeking diplomatic refuge. This claim appears only in SouthFront and pro-Russian aggregator outlets. While a Pravda EN report describes it as “unconfirmed reports,” no confirmation was found in Western wire agency coverage, including AFP, Reuters, or RFE/RL. It is flagged accordingly. ⚠ SINGLE SOURCE

The second is the claim that Witkoff delivered a specific ultimatum to Zelenskyy demanding an immediate halt to hostilities, with the Yermak prosecution framed as Washington’s response to Kyiv’s refusal. Mainstream reporting confirms that Witkoff and Kushner have been deeply active in Ukraine-Russia negotiations and that a three-day ceasefire was brokered around Victory Day. PBS News confirmed that Umerov met both envoys in Washington in recent days. But the specific “ultimatum” framing, and the causal chain connecting it to the NABU prosecution timeline, derives from sources with clear editorial alignment toward Russian state interests and should be treated as analysis rather than established fact. ⚠ CONTESTED CLAIM

What Operation Midas reveals, stripped of the geopolitical framing being layered onto it from multiple directions, is a functional anti-corruption mechanism pursuing a genuinely large case at an extraordinarily sensitive political moment. NABU has been building this investigation since at least November 2025, when the first searches occurred. The fact that Yermak was already out of office before the formal suspicion notice was issued matters: this is not a case of neutralizing a sitting official. It is a case that followed the evidence through a figure who had already been politically marginalised.

Ukraine’s decision in 2025 to temporarily gut NABU and SAPO, then reverse course under external pressure, illustrated both the fragility of anti-corruption institutions under wartime political conditions and the leverage that Western partners retain over Kyiv through their financial and military support. Zelenskyy’s approval rating remains at approximately 58 percent, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, a figure that has been stable despite the corruption turbulence. That stability suggests the domestic political damage from Operation Midas, at least so far, is limited.

The figure of Tymur Mindich, alleged architect of the kickback scheme, remains in Israel and has denied all allegations. Extradition requests are reportedly in process. Former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, whose NABU codename in case documents is “Che Guevara,” has also been implicated. Umerov’s role as a witness, rather than a suspect, is notable given that he is simultaneously serving as Ukraine’s lead negotiator in U.S.-backed peace efforts, a position that has gained importance as the ceasefire diplomacy has intensified.